Within hours of full-scale warfare between Iraq and Iran, the two
countries were out of the oil-exporting business, and the world
abruptly lost 7% of its total petroleum supply. If it had to happen,
the loss could hardly have come at a better time. For good reason,
throughout the West there was a concerted effort to reassure the
public. Some oil experts and politicians insisted that there was no
cause for panic, that the future was not so desperate as some headlines
leaped to suggest, and that the immediate impact...